The method that my grandmother used to teach me hula and chant was by imitation. This is also the way I teach today. We just repeated this process until she felt I was doing it correctly. She chanted, I chanted. She danced. I danced. I was not allowed to write anything which was good because when you learn strictly through memory, things tend to stay with you longer.

I had an 'uniki with my grandmother in February of 1984. It wasn't a traditional 'ailolo ceremony but more like a hu'elepo. It was a private ritual of prayers and food and was held during the day. I was presented and I danced and chanted some of the things I was taught. I don't think my grandmother felt that I was truly ready for 'uniki but she knew that her time was ending and she felt it was necessary to do this. She even told me that though I received her permission to teach that it didn't mean I was through learning. That for everything I knew, there were was a hundred things I didn't know! And that I was to go on seeking knowledge. Thus the saying in our halau "Ho'oulu i ka na'auao" (To grow in wisdom).